


Bye Bye

by crowleyshouseplant



Category: Siren (TV 2018)
Genre: Epilogue, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 08:12:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14765844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowleyshouseplant/pseuds/crowleyshouseplant





	Bye Bye

Maddie paced outside her dad’s house. He was still on the telephone with her mom. She had accepted that she was gone, that she wasn’t coming back. And now?

She pulled at her sleeves. Everything was changing too fast. Ben was enamored with Ryn, and where would that leave them? Donna had died because of Ben’s choices, and Maddie didn’t know what Ryn would do or where she would go. And now her mom was on the phone? Would she come back? And if she came back, she would probably be different too. Even if she was the same person that Maddie remembered, their relationship would be different because things couldn’t just be the same, not after all this time, not after everything.

Maddie sat on the porch step, her face in her hands. Normally, she would have texted Ben, asking if she could come over. But she couldn’t do that now either. Her eyes pricked.

“Maddie?”

She jumped, startled. Ryn stood in front of her. The light from the porch made her cheekbones even more pronounced. Something tensed along the channel of Maddie’s spine. What if Ryn sang her song to her too? And then another question tugged at her: why hadn’t she already, why had she shared this with Ben over her, when they had already shared so much together? Her thumbs touched her lips. Ryn had kissed her when she said that she had missed her. Not even that had come between her and Ben—but a song had. 

Maddie angrily wiped her eyes.

Ryn came to her, crouching between Maddie’s knees. 

“Maddie’s sad?” Ryn’s thumb touched her cheek, catching one of Maddie’s tears.

Would it feel like the ocean to Ryn, or was the water too warm?

“Sad because of Ryn?” Ryn looked stricken.

“No,” Maddie said. “Just everything else.” Her dad was still on the phone with her mom. She couldn’t tell how it was going. He always spoke softly when talking to her.

“Your father okay?”

Maddie nodded. “He wasn’t hurt badly.” It had just looked badly at the time, had felt badly. For a brief moment, she thought she had lost him, like she had lost her mother. That she would be left alone, an orphan. “My mom called. It’s confusing.”

Ryn’s head tilted. “Mother? I thought she was gone?”

“So did I.”

Ryn held her hand. “I did not mean to come between you and Ben.”

“I know,” Maddie said. She was more of a biologist but Maddie knew that the social customs among the merfolk would be different. Ryn would not be familiar with the complexities of human relationships, the expectation of monogamy unless explicitly and carefully negotiated. And perhaps that’s what had gone wrong, maybe because they hadn’t realized or seen it until it was too late, and Ben had nearly drowned himself in search of Ryn’s siren song. 

“Because I have, I must leave.”

Maddie raised her head, meeting Ryn’s eyes. “What do you mean you’re leaving?”

“I did not know my song would do what it did.”

Maddie grasped Ryn’s hand. “You can’t leave.”

Ryn stared at her.

“You’re our friend,” Maddie said. “Tough things happen. If we leave when things get hard, we’ll drown.” 

“Ben says you need time alone.”

“That’s different. We’re still there for each other. We’re not leaving each other.” 

Ryn shook her head. “It is best if I leave.” 

Maddie’s chin puckered as more tears threatened to fall. Ryn’s hands cupped her face, and Ryn’s kiss was soft just as it had been before. “Maddie is love,” Ryn whispered. “Ben is love.” 

Maddie clung to Ryn’s wrist, and pressed her cheek into her palm. “Ryn is love too.”

“Okay,” Ryn said. She rose to her feet, their hands falling apart. “Bye bye.”

And then she was walking away. Dimly she could hear her dad asking if she was okay, but how could Maddie tell him that she really wasn’t? Everything was falling apart, and Ryn could no longer be seen in the gathering darkness. There was only the lingering shadow of her kiss as her dad helped her to her feet. Still she lingered in the door, wondering if, like in the movies, Ryn would change her mind, and come back, but only if she could still see Maddie there, waiting for her. 

Her dad called for her. “Goodbye,” Maddie whispered. But she kept the light on just in case.


End file.
